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[TempAcc]

Balanced, intermittent fasting might be good if you can pull it off, but there isn't enough evidence of its long term effects, and there's a good change it might not work well for everyone. The human metabolism is a flexible, adaptable thing in most people, but some people, due to hormonal variations, thyroid related disorders, autoimmune problems or other conditions, have their metabolism work quite different. So yea, fasting can be beneficial to some people, but to other people it might have no effect, or even become potentialy dangerous.

Before trying to change your eating habits for a long period of time, you should at the very least consult a nutricionist. And yea, like bahihs said, you should absolutely never try to fast for more then 48 hours. After that your glycogen values will be VERY low and, depending on your body, you might be close to a muscle wasting scenario (which is when your body starts eating muscle tissue to keep you alive).

In regards to eating every 2 hours: Intermittent eating isn't supposed to induce the body conditions that cause it to break and burn fat, though. Its speeds your metabolism and its great when you're exercising regulary. It can also contribute to eliminating fatty tissue and building muscle mass if you're training regulary. But yea, I sinned when I forgot to mention it might not be good for you if you aren't exercising regulary. Regulary as in daily workout sessions. So unless you're doing that, its probably not very advisable.

[bahihs]

Balanced, intermittent fasting might be good if you can pull it off, but there isn't enough evidence of its long term effects, and there's a good change it might not work well for everyone. The human metabolism is a flexible, adaptable thing in most people, but some people, due to hormonal variations, thyroid related disorders, autoimmune problems or other conditions, have their metabolism work quite different. So yea, fasting can be beneficial to some people, but to other people it might have no effect, or even become potentialy dangerous.

Before trying to change your eating habits for a long period of time, you should at the very least consult a nutricionist. And yea, like bahihs said, you should absolutely never try to fast for more then 48 hours. After that your glycogen values will be VERY low and, depending on your body, you might be close to a muscle wasting scenario (which is when your body starts eating muscle tissue to keep you alive).

In regards to eating every 2 hours: Intermittent eating isn't supposed to induce the body conditions that cause it to break and burn fat, though. Its speeds your metabolism and its great when you're exercising regulary. It can also contribute to eliminating fatty tissue and building muscle mass if you're training regulary. But yea, I sinned when I forgot to mention it might not be good for you if you aren't exercising regulary. Regulary as in daily workout sessions. So unless you're doing that, its probably not very advisable.

Fair enough. I would still say that there is enough evidence to support CR (if not fasting) having long-term benefits (and fasting is a way to achieve CR) given the 75+ years of research, but yes I don't expect it to be perfectly universal. Also, another caveat, if you're planning on heavy physical activity, its better not to fast (either that or you have to eat much more per meal, while still ensuring balanced meals) as it will hinder muscle growth. Also I cannot emphasize enough the balanced meal part of fasting. Just follow the food pyramid and you should be fine. Eating pizza and hamburgers twice a day and fasting will not do anything, and is even likely to harm you (which is the case whether you fast or not).

[Levi]

Making a meal plan once a week would probably be helpful.  I'm the type that will eat out or eat the same junk every day, but if I write down what I'm going to eat every day of the week(and shop for it immediately after making the plan) I'm much better at sticking to healthier foods.

[alway]

Ok my steps

Step 1: Like yourself
Step 2: Find foods you like
Step 3: Eat More

This is what you are doing

Step 1: Hate yourself
Step 2: Eat low calorie garbage crud
Step 3: Eat less

Ok joke aside.

My personal opinion on losing weight is that generally speaking you want to try to eat more, throughout the day.

You want to get to know yourself, know what you like, know what you can't live without.

And exercise? do you find it boring? Find something you like to do.

There is a reason why there is a HUGE debate with Canadian Doctors right now... about whether or not a doctors should prescribe "lose weight" anymore... or if they should instead put people on a "Be healthy" regiment.

Ohhh and pro-tip: Most Diet food is unhealthy... and often high calorie garbage. My Sister's Healthy diet Granola Bars? Yeah she would have actually been better off eating a Mr.Big.

This. Calorie counting and crap like that will just screw you over. Don't eat much processed foods, and don't eat much bland foods. Eat stuff with lots of flavor that sticks around after eating. Eat fish and birds instead of pork and beef.

Grab a can of mixed nuts to snack on, possibly with at least one sort of nut you don't like if you end up eating a lot of them  (you will either just eat less or spend enough time picking through them to slow you down). Then get a loaf of very strong tasting bread (I personally go with the pepperidge farm "ancient grains" stuff); this will be for replacing quick junk food meals with a quick burst of taste that sticks around afterwards reminding you that you already ate. Coffee also suppresses appetite, so drinking more of that can help (as of the latest US dietary recommendations, 3-5 cups of coffee per day is perfectly fine).

Just make sure you never go hungry. Going hungry leads to eating a lot more.

[Flying Dice]

It's also healthier to space out your consumption rather than eating large meals. Combine that with ~2 meals/day worth of food and eating mostly filling, healthful foods and you'll be good (though some jobs &c. will interfere with this).

The biggest thing by far is to avoid the really bad stuff, mainly fast food. Eat fresh fruits and veggies when you can, they're miles ahead of canned stuff (but the latter is better than nothing). Eat fish, fowl, beans, &c. instead of red meat. It's better for you and often tastes better. Eat whole wheat bread instead of white. If you have a sweet tooth, eat things flavored with fruit/honey/&c. instead of sugar and processed candies. Even if all you do is cut out fast food, that'll go a long way.

Exercise doesn't have to be biweekly or daily gym trips. If you have a choice between stairs or elevators, take the former. Don't drive when you can walk. Keep a little 10lb barbell beside your computer desk and lift it instead of sitting there doing nothing when you're waiting on something to load/buffer/whatever. Hell, something I started doing is great: when you go to bed, do a set of crunches, don't stop until a few after it starts burning -- not only will this help you burn fat and build muscle in your abdomen, but it also puts you out like a light. Even if you can only do five or ten to start, it's an easy habit to get into, helps you sleep, and gives you a measurable sign of progress.

If you have time, money, and willingness, try swimming. It's hands-down the best exercise you'll ever get and is a lot of fun as well.

e: Also fuck sodas. You will feel so much better if you cut them out, never mind the good it'll do for your teeth.

[TempAcc]

Like both me and flying dice mentioned, cut soda from your life RIGHT NOW. Seriously, I cant stress enough just how much your life improves after you cut on soda, be it coke, pepsi, etc.

Like Flying Dice, I also recommend swimming if you can. Swimming is great because it exercises nearly your whole body, is great for developing muscles (specialy upper body muscles, which is great for males since thats where most fat tends to gather) and burns a lot of calories while also being a useful skill and overall pretty fun. Its also very therapeutic in dealing with back pain.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Like both me and flying dice mentioned, cut soda from your life RIGHT NOW. Seriously, I cant stress enough just how much your life improves after you cut on soda, be it coke, pepsi, etc.

Like Flying Dice, I also recommend swimming if you can. Swimming is great because it exercises nearly your whole body, is great for developing muscles (specialy upper body muscles, which is great for males since thats where most fat tends to gather) and burns a lot of calories while also being a useful skill and overall pretty fun. Its also very therapeutic in dealing with back pain.

ye, I've cut my soda consumption by quite a lot over the years. Haven't done a whole lot of swimming.

Let me thank everyone again for all the responses.

Lol, @Neonivek, but I like bad food AND eat a lot of it... even though I feel like shit afterwards.

I will probably changing things up the next time I go to the store, so i'll let you guys know whats up, and possibly keep this updated with how much weight I lose, if I lose any at all.

[gimlet]

My tip is - you really have to put in place a SYSTEM, not just good intentions when you're actually in a store. 

That means learning to cook at least a little, seeking out healthy looking recipes that satisfy both your dietary goals AND taste, and that aren't too tedious to prepare.  Then shopping for *only* that stuff, why would you even purchase things you've decided not to eat and bring them into the house?

You can find the "perfect" diet, but if it's something that takes 4 hours of fiddly cooking a day, it's just not gonna happen for 99% of people.  Ditto if you can't find enough variety to keep you on track - the "perfect diet" might be stewed prunes, but again good luck eating nothing but that meal after meal, if you make it a week it'd be a miracle.

That being said, DO try to stick with things long enough for your tastes to change.  It's tough but you CAN wean yourself off soda, and you will need less of the "flavor assault" and fats over time, you'll appreciate the subtle flavor of good meat and vegetables with minimal seasoning.  If you slip, don't get discouraged and quit, get back on track and try again, with modifications if need be.

I'm on an intermediate stage between the random and usually unhealthy stuff I used to eat and the mythical "ideal diet".  Most meals are lots of vegetables and a little meat, and I've got snacks down to mostly fruit, nuts&raisins, yogurt and even sometimes vegetables (celery/broccoli w/a bit of peanut butter).

Basics:  I can eat all the vegetables I want.  Limit the fatty meat and bread/pasta.
So I buy 5 lb bags of frozen vegetables, often the "stir fry vegetables" which give a nice variety.   Throw it in a pan add a bunch of no-salt seasoning, put a pork chop or chicken breast on top, little olive oil if it needs it, under the broiler on both sides til the meat is done, BAM done.  Once or twice a week I use a salmon steak, or just canned salmon.  Ribeye steak a few times a week.
Breakfast is oatmeal or "egg mush" (frozen vegetables + eggs)
When it's hot I often some variety of a cold bean "salad" - olive oil+balsamic vinegar, can of green beans, can of black or garbanzo beans, can of tomato.  Usually some kalamata olives.  Optional: capers, garlic, whole wheat pasta or oatmeal, red pepper flakes, canned artichoke hearts or heart of palm, mustard, there's a zillion possibilities.
And big bags of broccoli, throw some in with the stir fry veg or bean salad, eat as a salad/snack, whatever.  I do alternate this in and out 'cause it's hard for me to use up the whole big bag, and when I overdo it I get tired of it - so find a few things you can alternate when you start to get tired of stuff.

If you've cut down the fat, you WILL need snacks/more frequent meals, so plan those out instead of grabbing potato chips or something nasty.  Unsalted nuts+raisins, fruit, a smoothie if you can be arsed to make it and clean the blender (I usually just drink some milk and eat the fruit).  Or a greek yogurt + fruit +  maybe one or 2 "aussie bites" (rolled oats, flax seed, sunflower seeds etc - kind of like premade "poo bars" see scooby below).  Or cottage cheese + fruit or peanut butter.  Salsa is great, but even the "healthier" tortilla chips aren't so hot, still looking for a good alternative here 'til then I just try for moderation.

Drinks is plain water, green tea, wine w/dinner, coffee w/breakfast once in a while.  Milk+protein powder if I'm on the way to work out/worked out.

It's a regime I can stand eating about 95% of the time and is very time/cleanup efficient.  Yeah there's a ton of critiques - sodium from the canned stuff, obviously you'd want to use fresh vegetables as much as possible, but man good luck keeping that  in stock and using it up timely if you actually have a job.  Too much olive oil, probably a few too many eggs (I can't be arsed to separate and throw out the yolks, plus they're soooo damn tasty).  I *try* to buy fresh veg and work more salads into the mix, but damn I just don't have time to keep stopping multiple times a week to do it consistently.   It is still a huge step up from where I was.  I have some other time saving tricks like lining the pan with foil before broiling, then I don't even have to wash the pan,  cooking oatmeal/whole wheat pasta in a thermos so I don't have to boil and watch a pot for half an hour, etc.

I got the egg mush/salmon mush from http://scoobysworkshop.com/quick-healthy-meals/
The bean salad was from Apocalypse Chow - a combination of the "three's a crowd" and "salad nicoise"   see if this link works, for me it shows those 2 recipes   https://books.google.com/books?id=VrQAINlgTVQC&lpg=PT166&ots=_nYKNGS9Sn&dq=%22three's%20a%20crowd%22%20%22apocalypse%20chow%22%20garbanzo&pg=PT167#v=onepage&q=%22three's%20a%20crowd%22%20%22apocalypse%20chow%22%20garbanzo&f=false

[Urist McScoopbeard]

In the next few days, Maybe i'll write something down? Some preliminary diet plan.

[Neonivek]

Lol, @Neonivek, but I like bad food AND eat a lot of it... even though I feel like shit afterwards.

Then eat bad food, find a way to fit it into what you eat.

My comment on "diet food" was only so much that they usually taste bad and are high on calories, low on nutrition, garbage. If you are better off eating a chocolate bar, just eat a chocolate bar.

If you have a choice between stairs or elevators, take the former. Don't drive when you can walk.

For weight loss this is actually pretty insignificant and sometimes, depending on how fast you walk, can make no difference.

It is something that is good to do just for your own overall energy levels and fitness.

[Flying Dice]

Yeah, that's the point. It's a habit which takes basically zero effort to get into, but has positive effects. This is anecdotal, of course, but back in my first semester at uni I went from working 40-50h a week of rigorous manual labor to sitting around for hours, and I always took elevators (mostly from laziness). I lost muscle tone, natch, but that'll happen regardless if you let up on exercise.

However, the next semester I stopped using elevators and the little intra-campus buses and started walking and taking the stairs. My usual routine had me going up ~40 flights of stairs per day in addition to a couple miles of walking per day, and that had a measurable impact on my wind -- at the start, I was breathing heavy and sweating slightly after 4-5 stories (natural, given months of little exercise and a sedentary life), and by the end I was taking stairs two at a time everywhere without any strain.

It's simple, it's not going to do much for your upper body, but it's good for your legs as well as being good cardio and stamina work. It's really just a reiteration of the point I was making: a full-time job consisting of varied and intense physical labor or regular and high-impact trips to a gym will let you get into really good shape really fast (seriously, it takes maybe 1-2 weeks at most during summers from me to go from slow and completely untoned to well-toned and day-long endurance), but you don't need to do that. It feels great, but it can feel good just to be able to walk a few miles carrying 15-25lbs without trouble, take a dozen flights of stairs without breathing hard, &c.

That's the easiest exercise-related approach you can take, stuff that doesn't really disrupt your life but which can have a positive impact. Cardio and endurance is incredibly easy even if you're spending most of your day at a desk, and though it's repetitive it does bear repeating: a basic degree of physical fitness feels good and is relatively easy to achieve, and that starts you on a positive spiral. If you're feeling good about your body, that makes it easier to feel good about other things in your life.

--

As an aside, get the right amount of sleep. More than 7 hours and less than 9 hours per day is ideal; less or more has been connected in clinical studies to poorer health in the short term and a shorter life in the long term. And goodness knows it's hypocritical for me to stress this point, hah.


But yeah, you can eat fairly unhealthful foods on a regular basis. It's easier to ignore if you got lucky in the metabolism lottery and are pretty much incapable of gaining or losing weight, but that just helps obscure the less obvious effects. It'll take years off your life, but that's your choice. That said, I'd stress mostly getting rid of the really bad stuff (chain fast food, HFCS, &c.) and including more good stuff (fresh foods of all sorts, esp. fruits/veggies not treated with pesticides or the nastier sorts of preservatives, but above all else variety in what you eat). Cutting calories is far less important than making sure that what you eat includes everything your body needs.

Anyhow, there are usually good ways to keep "bad" food while making it less unhealthful. Go for sweets made with honey, molasses, other spices, &c. (or failing that, just plain sugar) while avoiding the stuff made with HFCS & co. Unsalted potato chips are gross, but try for the low-fat ones. Eat your sandwiches with turkey or chicken instead of ham and roast beef. When you get a sandwich, burger, wrap, &c., get some dark greens (spinach is the most common to find), tomato, &c. on them. Don't treat fucking iceberg lettuce as a vegetable, it's got less nutritional value than cardboard.

There's also lots of really great fruit out there. Don't get Red Delicious apples, they're mealy and flavorless. Most groceries will sell Galas or Granny Smiths for ~$1.??/lb., so you can get a large, flavorful apple for ~$0.60-70, and better groceries will have more selection. Farmers markets are great if there's one near where you live; you can often find good local-grown peppers in a range from "pretty spicy" to "really super fucking hot" for low prices, and that's all you need to help flavor a chili or pot of lentils and rice. If you're cooking for yourself, you can just make a pot of stew with a good mix of vegetables, potatoes, beans, lentils, peppers, and whatever meat and spices you want to throw in for flavor and zest, and live off of that plus some fruit for a week without dietary problems.

TOO FUCKING LONG, DIDN'T READ SHIT CAP'N: It's mostly just a matter of avoiding the trap of eating the same super-easy and relatively cheap crap for every meal.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

My problem is entirely dietary. I workout multiple times a week, and walk a lot. My problem is not that I don't know how to work out or go on a diet, it's that i'm a sonofabitch when it comes to sticking with it. Mostly dietary these days, as i've found a workout that works for me, but even then, when I don't workout on my own I tend to do cardio with my family and/or be bad at sports with friends. So my main problem is that I eat like shit and have a hard time stopping. It really is like an addiction. When I don't eat bad food I CRAVE it hard. I've done the vegan diet, so i've gone pretty extreme and knows what it feels like, but honestly if there is food that is more "delicious" around, which generally tends to be something like a hamburger, I WILL get it. I really can't stop myself. My real problem is that for me to stick to a diet, either I have to have literally NOTHING in the house whatsoever other than what ever i've strictly proscribed to myself, which wasn't hard when my whole family was on the same vegan diet, or alternatively, cook for myself, which is what it's gonna have to be here in college. Of course, the real clincher is serving size. If didn't eat as much as I did, i'd probably still be a little flabby but without the 2 inches of belly (getting rid of which is the overall and long term goal of this thread) like I have now. I mean, I like to eat a lot, if it's fries it's a big bowl, got a bag of chips? Sure i'll have it all. Etc. stuff like that that just really piles on the empty calories, and I can't stop.

Essentially, many of the posts have already addressed this though, and i'm seeing what I can to do to limit my exposure to unhealthy foods and get healthy snacks that will force me to eat less. Of course, what seems to work best is to give yourself time to still pig out every now and again too in terms of keeping your sanity. So ya.

Also, i'm not really looking in to swimming for those interested. If I have a free night or something, maybe i'll get back in to it, but I was never a big swimmer. I can swim of course and i'm pretty proficient, but it's a mentally difficult task for me to concentrate on performing as my legs and my arms really don't like to work at the same time while I swim, leading to constant stops, and generally annoyance and/or cramps.

[Naryar]

Eat less.

If you really are hungry then eat soup, so you feel filled but it is low in calories. Preferably a tasty one so eating stays pleasurable.

Or only eat fruit and vegetables. The ones you like best, so the diet is easy, and don't eat too much high carb/fat vegetables like potatoes, yams, bananas, etc.

[scrdest]

Eat less.

That's only a marginally more useful advice than 'don't be fat'.

Right now, you're better off with a qualitative switch - eating better, not less. Junk food is very much an addiction in its own specific way - if certain research is to be believed, it might literally be an addiction-like state of attraction to certain foods mediated by gut bacteria - but as with any other addictions, it gets weaker if you fight it off long enough.

Don't 'do diets' - that's a horribad approach, as it intrinsically encourages to treat it as an extreme and temporary measure imposed by someone. Eat what you want with the provision it has to specifically not be complete crap. Pretty much 'wait, eating deep-fried butterburger is not the thing to do to achieve my goals here'.

[eerr]

I've found that cooking my own food means i eat less.

Microwaves are baaaad.